Neck straps are linear, flexible fabric elements adapted to be received around the neck of a wearer and for holding or retaining on the neck of the wearer, any number of various workpieces or items, including: firefighter's breathing air masks, eyeglasses, respirators, face gear, head gear, lanyards, and other suitable items.
Oft-times, straps or other retainer assemblies, such as article retaining straps, need to merely releasably engage the workpiece, such as by snap clips or threadable rings and loops. The retainment of a workpiece by a strap is often fairly straightforward. A strap or linear element may be passive, such as straps for connecting the removed end of eyeglasses when the eyeglasses are being worn, or they may be active (that is, supporting the weight of the workpiece), such as when the eyeglasses are removed and being actively maintained on the wearer by the strap.
There are cases, however, when either convenience or, more importantly, safety dictates a rapid, safe, easy release of one portion of a strap from another or the strap itself from a workpiece.
One such “quick release” scenario is played out in FIGS. 6A, 6B, 6C, and 6D. The inventor of the instant devices is a professional firefighter with several decades experience. He is seen here wearing a fire mask, which has a strap, including elements of embodiments of the invention as set forth herein. The firefighter merely needs to grasp a portion, if time permits, or just pull away with minimal force, the strap is designed to breakaway automatically with minimal force (linear pull) without the use of the firefighters' hands.
In the action sequence 6A-6D, a simulated event is shown, which depicts actual events that have occurred in emergency situations involving firefighters. Here, through a sequence of four photographs, a strap which engages the firefighter's mask and hangs loosely around the neck, is accidentally caught on a door handle. Imagine that the scene is smoky and visibility is low. With prior art snap clips or fastening elements, the firefighter ends up fumbling around trying to remove the strap that is caught on something (here, a door handle) while a fire rages around him. With an embodiment of Applicant's novel device set forth herein, the firefighter merely needs to grasp a portion of the neck strap and yank or just pull away forcing strap to break away.
When a firefighter's hands are busy holding equipment or tools or a rescued victim, there is no time to stop and pull on a caught strap. The Applicant's strap disengages itself (“hands free”—the firefighter does nothing) from the entanglement dilemma (“Life Safety”), because of the linear pull design. With as little as about 7 lbs. of pressure, the strap with snap buttons disengage with no damage to the expensive SCBA mask.
There are a number of other embodiments of Applicant's novel strap with snap button assembly. In some embodiments, a snap button or equivalent device is used to engage either the strap to a workpiece or one portion of the strap to another portion of the strap. Moreover, the snap button assembly used is configured on the strap or strap elements, such that the pull separation or force is substantially perpendicular to the plane of the closure elements of the snap. Thus, in embodiments of Applicant's strap and strap assembly, cooperating male and female elements of a snap button are affixed to a strap, which when pulled applies a force about an axis perpendicular to the face of the closure elements of the snap button or other snap. The breakaway snap button can also be located on any part of the neck strap for safety purposes.